using plants as litterboxes

My kitten Foxxy uses my dads plant behind our chair in the livingroom. She only does this occasionally and theres nothing wrong with her litterbox, its always clean. Any suggestions?

Decorative pine cones make a great "mulch".
Others use tinfoil, or a million toothpicks stood on end in the soil. Anything to make the surface unattractive to her.

you could put chicken wire over the dirt and then cover with more dirt, they don't like to step on that. another deterrent is supposed to be lemon. You could place some lemon peels or sprayu with lemon and water joice. Don't know why she would do it. more attention, someone hanging around the litter box when she wants to go? If you watch more closely you might find a reason.

If she is routinely NOT using the litterbox, you may want to try switching the sand in there. My cat hates the rough gravel stuff, and was peeing on our carpet, bathmat and bed (ickkkkkkk...) until we switched the gravel to a soft sand. Now we have no problems...

Also, not all cats are deterred by lemon smell, and some are actually attracted to it. At least my cat is attracted to it!

Good luck.

Originally Posted by piercedgoddess

My kitten Foxxy uses my dads plant behind our chair in the livingroom. She only does this occasionally and theres nothing wrong with her litterbox, its always clean. Any suggestions?

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If you catch her in the plant,tell her no and scoop up a little of the "unused" dirt and take it and her straight to her litter box. Scatter the dirt on the litter and tell her "this is where you go"!! That's what I did with mine...and it worked!

I would suggest possibly gradually switching to something like Feline Pine in the litterbox. Perhaps she would prefer the more natural smell, feel, etc. In gradually switching, I would recommend using your regular litter with about an eight of the Feline Pine, then a week later a fourth, then another week later, half, then the final week all. Keep an eye on the process, though. If your kitty decides to not use the litterbox when you switch amounts at any time, slow the process down. If you switch too suddenly, your kitty won't want to use the new litter.

Another good thing about Feline Pine is the fact that it's excellent both at absorption and odor control. You'll need to either get a new scooper with bigger holes or widen the holes on your current one, though, as the Feline Pine pellets are too big for the holes in average scoopers.

Hope that helps!